Professional coaching is an interactive process that helps individuals and organisations improve their performance and achieve extraordinary results. But sometimes lines between coaching and other helping professions, like therapy or consulting, get blurred. To help educate potential coaching clients, the International Coach Federation (ICF) has recently published an article which attempts to clear up what a client should and shouldn’t expect from a coaching partnership.
I’ve taken the liberty of expanding this in certain areas to help readers in this difficult area.
It is coaching unless…
… the coach tells you what to do.
Many people find it surprising that coaches do not tell their clients what they should do with their lives or careers. Coaching maintains that every client is creative, resourceful and whole – that, in fact, you already know the answers. The coach’s responsibility is to help the client access, discover, clarify and align with their own unique talents and abilities so that they can achieve results. In Meta-coaching specifically, we work to align performance with meanings, values and beliefs in a way that enables the client to move along the path towards self-actualisation.
… the focus is on resolving difficulties from your past which impact your emotional functioning in the present.
Therapy focuses on improving overall psychological functioning. The primary focus of coaching is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in work or personal life. The emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, sustainable change, accountability and follow-through.
… the coach solves your problems.
An over-riding presupposition of coaching is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying and facilitating supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks.
… the coach focuses on improving on your less-than-desired behaviours or weaknesses.
The focus of coaching is on identifying opportunity for development based on individual strengths and capabilities. Coaching incorporates an appreciative approach, grounded in what’s right, what’s working, what’s wanted, and what’s needed to get there from the clients perspective.
… the coach uses their own experiences to mentor or guide you.
Mentoring, which can be thought of as guiding or sharing of experience in a specific area of industry or career development, is sometimes confused with coaching.
Although some coaches provide mentoring as part of their services, coaches are not typically mentors to those they coach. It is up to a client and coach to jointly decide on the scope of the coaching agreement which may include elements of consulting, mentoring or other services. In such cases, it is perfectly acceptable for a coach to use these approaches in addition to coaching.
Coaching is a distinct profession with established core competencies that define a required skill set which can only be accessed with the knowledge and experience of a professional coach.
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